Jai Manselle of Newport News embraces the thrills and dangers of digital age marketing

Jai Manselle says two different types of people inhabit the music industry: those enthralled with the business side and the artists who run away from it at top speed.

"I realized early on that I loved it," said the 27-year-old Newport News marketing specialist. His small company Manselle Media operates from offices in City Center at Oyster Point.

A fast-talking young man and a snappy dresser, he projects the image of an entertainment business mover and shaker.

"Everyone wants to be a singer, a writer or a producer," Manselle said. "Very early, I thought 'I can help those people ...' I thought I was creating an industry. I didn't realize how expansive brand development was at the time."

Entrepreneurial ideas were rattling around in his brain back in high school. Today, Manselle runs what he describes as a thriving business helping entertainers, athletes and traditional businesses craft a sharper public image.

He's done work for basketball star LeBron James as well as music mogul Sean Combs, also known as Diddy. A current client is R&B singer Segarra whose song "5150" includes contributions from famous rapper Busta Rhymes. His local customers have included Peninsula Fine Arts Center and Hatchett Design/Remodel.

Manselle has helped his clients organize public events, polish their websites and cultivate healthy connections with fans through social media.

"You cannot overvalue social media at this point," Manselle said in a recent interview with the Daily Press. "It's not the end-all, be-all for every solution, but it can't be overvalued."

Yet, he's also aware of its risks. Back in October, in what he describes as a case of mistaken identity, gossip websites reported that he was dating pop star Demi Lovato of "Give Your Heart a Break" and television "X Factor" fame.

Despite attempts to counteract it by both Manselle and Lovato, the story spread like wildfire, powered by social media networks Twitter and Facebook.

"The whole thing was surreal. I must have helped dozens of clients through these kinds of stories over the years, but I never thought I would be the one in the headlines," Manselle wrote in an press release. "It's definitely a different feeling to be the one everyone is talking about."

Headlines at the time included "Meet Demi Lovato's New Boyfriend" from CelebDirtyLaundry.com and "Demi Lovato's Hot Weekend PDA with New Boyfriend" on http://www.gather.com.

OMG!, Yahoo's celebrity new site, reported that "according to sources the blonde was spotted locking lips with entrepreneur and businessman, Jai Manselle over the weekend."

The alleged smooching took place in Detroit. Trouble is, Manselle was in Virginia at the time. "I was dealing with Hurricane Sandy that day," he said. "I was here. Where the idea of it happening came from, I can't say."

At first, he was amused.

"I thought, 'This will be over in no time.' But it just kept growing and growing and growing. At a certain point, when I started seeing my face on all these Brazilian websites, I was like, 'We've got to slow this down.'"

He used his public relations expertise to knock back the flames. He sent a message through Twitter describing the story as a silly rumor. Lovato, for her part, tweeted "Who the hell is Jai Manselle?"

"It's a blessing in disguise," Manselle said, speaking a few weeks after the kerfuffle. "The anxiety-producing part for me was, I didn't know where the story was going to go ... But I made a decision early on, I wasn't going to do an interview about it. I don't need that type of press. I'm not a tabloid guy. But the fact that it happened is not necessarily a terrible thing.

"The funniest part, I think, was that I probably got a few thousand new 12-year-old girl followers on Twitter."

To be clear, Manselle said he was not the source of the Lovato rumors. Conversations with several of his local clients suggest that Manselle's not prone to pulling cheap publicity stunts.

Mike McGrann, the new promotions director for the Hampton History Museum, worked with Manselle at Peninsula Fine Arts Center.

"He's really very clever. He thinks big, but in an attainable way," McGrann said. "He has the contacts to make things happen."

McGrann said Manselle takes his reputation seriously. "If he gets involved with something, he wants it to be top drawer."

For the Newport News business Hatchett Design/Remodel, Manselle revamped the company's website and extended that look to marketing materials such as brochures, signs and cards.

"We are thrilled, not only with the aesthetics of our site, but also the increase of traffic," wrote Meghan Hatchett in an e-mail. "Not only is Jai extremely professional, he has style. His slogan, 'Life is nothing without style,' really reflects his personality, creativity, and how he approaches projects."